Odisha man carries daughter's body on shoulder for 8 kms for post-mortem
Bhubaneswar, Oct 18 : A man in cyclone-ravaged Odisha's Gajapati district Thursday apparently walked for eight kilometres carrying the body of his seven-year-old daughter, who died in a landslide, on his shoulder for post-mortem.
The incident, footage of which was shown by local channels, was reminiscent of a 2016 episode, when a man had walked 10 km carrying his dead wife on his shoulder after being denied a hearse at Bhawanipatna government hospital in Kalahandi district.
The Gajapati incident happened in Atankpur village under Laxmipur gram panchayat. Mukund Dora put daughter Babita's body in a sack and carried it on his shoulder for the post mortem.
Babita had gone missing after Cyclone Titli and the state government on Wednesday declared her dead based on information from local panchayat functionaries, though her body was yet to be traced, officials said.
The girl had gone missing on October 11, her father said.
"Babita was swept away due to landslide during Cyclone Titli and subsequent flood caused by extremely heavy rainfall in the Mahendragiri hills of Gajapati district," an official at the special relief commissioner's office said.
Dora, walking down to Kainpur government hospital with the body, said, "We found my daughter's body near a nullah on Wednesday afternoon. Police was informed and they came to our village this morning and took photographs of the body."
He told reporters, who spotted him near Laxmipur on his way to the hospital, that the police did not make arrangements to shift the body to hospital for post mortem. "Instead they (policemen) instructed me to bring the body to the hospital. I am a poor man and cannot hire a vehicle to transport the body from the village to hospital. Also the road to my village is damaged due to the cyclone and landslide. Therefore, I put the body in a bag and carried it on my shoulder."
Following this, police arranged an auto-rickshaw to carry the man and the body to Kainpur hospital.
Gajapati District Collector Anupam Shah told PTI he was trying to gather the details of the incident. "I am aware of the allegation and examining the matter to ascertain the truth."
This evening, the collector handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to Dora as compensation following the death of his daughter in the cyclone-triggered landslide.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a resident of Angul district in Odisha, visited the cyclone-hit Gajapati and Ganjam districts Thursday. He said, "It is painful to witness a man carrying the body of his daughter on his shoulder and walking down to hospital for post-mortem."
Dana Majhi, a poor tribal man from Kalahandi district, had walked more than 10 km carrying his dead wife on his shoulder from the government hospital after being denied a hearse in 2016.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
